Jacob Worenklein has devoted his career as a lawyer, banker, and executive to finding solutions of major problems relating to energy and infrastructure particularly in the poorest countries of the world.
He is Chairman and CEO of US Grid Company, an electric power company focused on creating a more efficient and resilient electric power system in the US. As CEO of US Grid Company, he played a key role in 2016 in saving the Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York from shutdown, resulting in a major long-term reduction in carbon emissions in New York State. Worenklein is also Chairman of Ravenswood Power Holdings, which owns and operates the 2,450- MW Ravenswood gas-fired power plant in New York City, the largest power plant in New York. He previously founded and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of US Power Generating Company, which owned and operated 5,200 MWs of generating capacity in New York City and Boston, representing approximately 20% of the generating capacity of New York City and 50% of the generating capacity of Boston.
Worenklein started his career as a lawyer at Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy where he practiced law for 20 years, formed and headed its global power and project finance practices, and served on its three-person executive committee. He then headed the global project finance and independent power business of Lehman Brothers, where he helped open the global capital markets to the financing of energy and infrastructure project bonds. At Lehman, he led the IPO and the listing on the NY Stock Exchange of a major Chinese power company, advised the Government of Indonesia on the private sector development of the country’s largest power project, and played a key role in the financing of the privatization of Brazil’s electric distribution sector. Worenklein then served as global head of the energy, power, and infrastructure groups at Societe Generale, which, under his leadership, was named by Euromoney in 2001 as the World’s Best Project Finance Bank.
In 2002 he received the first Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Infrastructure Journal in London for his contributions to the development and financing of energy and infrastructure throughout the world. Worenklein has taught classes on ethics and business at Princeton and Yale and served as Adjunct Professor of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has served as a trustee and member of the executive committee of the Committee for Economic Development, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a trustee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of NY. Worenklein holds a BA degree from Columbia College and JD and MBA degrees from NYU Law School and the NYU Stern School of Business.
